


Orphans

by pepperine



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Geisha, Angst, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Romance if you squint, child characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9493925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepperine/pseuds/pepperine
Summary: Kougyoku has only just met this boy, yet he’s taken it upon himself to look after her this way.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Koukoi1412](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Koukoi1412/gifts).



> For Day 2 (Favorite Angst Fic) of [Magi Fanfic Fest](https://magifanficfest.tumblr.com/). Based on [Crystal Wasteland](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7408243/chapters/16826776) by [Koukoi1412](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Koukoi1412/).
> 
> I’ve been in Magi fandom for over three years now, and this fic holds the honor of being the only one that’s ever gotten me to tear up. I just loved the concept of Kougyoku being the orphaned daughter of a geisha, and I thought it would be really fun to explore what happens after Alibaba takes her in and brings her home to Kassim and Mariam. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, Koukoi!! It’s a real pleasure having you in Magi fandom, and I’m always thrilled to read anything you write.

Kougyoku snuggles deeper under the covers, reveling in the warmth despite the musty smell that clings to the bedding. The futon beneath her is worn, thick padding crushed flat from years of use. It’s a far cry from the one she used to share with her mother in the okiya, beaten clean and aired out on the balcony on clear days, but she can hardly complain.

This is where she’ll sleep from now on, together with three other children. Orphans, just like her.

The golden-haired boy lying next to her —his name is Alibaba— finds her hand beneath the covers and gives it a squeeze. Kougyoku’s heavy eyelids fly open in surprise. He’s staring at her, light from the fireplace illuminating his face, which is oddly round and chubby compared to the rest of him.

“Warm enough?” Alibaba whispers, careful not to wake his siblings, and he gives her a small grin. It’s the same smile he wore as he took her hand and pulled her from the snow, from the very clutches of death. And it’s far too sunny for winter.

“Yes,” she says shyly, turning onto her side, trying to get more comfortable on the hard futon. “Thank you.”

The wind howls outside, making the beams that hold the tiny shack together groan. The house belonged to his late mother, just like the futon, and the bowls from which his brother fed Kougyoku a helping of rice and stolen fish. She doesn’t know how she’ll ever repay them this kindness, however begrudgingly it may have been given at times.

The little girl who now lies at her back, Mariam, nestles closer to Kougyoku, pressing right up against her and throwing an arm over waist. She is the smallest in their family, and the most sickly, and so she sleeps the closest to the fire. She coughs, and Kougyoku feels her breath ruffle the back of her hair.

Immediately, her face pales at the familiar sound, her heart clenching in anxiety.

“Don’t worry,” says Alibaba, mid-yawn. “You can’t catch it.”

“How do you know?” asks Kougyoku, and it’s the first thing she’s said all evening that isn’t an expression of gratitude. With Alibaba’s bossy brother snoring on the other side of him, she doesn’t feel so silly voicing whatever troublesome thoughts come into her head.

“Because,” Alibaba replies with a sleepy smile, pulling the thick quilt up to his chin. “Kassim and I would have already caught it ourselves if we could.”

“I see,” Kougyoku murmurs, hiding her mouth behind the sleeve of her kimono, just in case. She can hear Mariam wheezing behind her, tiny chest rattling like she’s close to death.

Kougyoku would know what that sounds like. It’s something she’ll never forget for as long as she lives.

“My mother… She died of a coughing sickness,” she says into her sleeve, and the contented look on Alibaba’s face fades. He studies her for a moment, eyes large but unreadable in the dark, then glances away.

Kougyoku doesn’t know why she told him that, but there’s something about her savior that makes her want to tell him everything she can. Perhaps it’s just because he’s the first person to actually listen to her in months. When she was forced to beg on the streets, there were times when Kougyoku wondered if she even had a voice, or if winter had stolen it from her completely.

“I’m sorry,” says Alibaba. He’s not looking at her, but it’s nothing like the indifferent gazes of strangers as they passed her by. “When?” His fingers brush against the back of her hand, gentle as the snow that fell upon it only hours ago, but still he looks away.

“The beginning of autumn,” she murmurs. Kougyoku has never spoken to anyone about this before, and although she thought she’d been able to mend the hole in her heart alone, she now feels it ripping open again.

“Mother still owed a big debt to her okiya, but the proprietress said I was too plain to ever earn it back myself.” The words spill easily from her mouth, but the tears now prickling at her eyes don’t fall.

“She said I had no place in the flower and willow world. So I had to leave.” She pauses for a moment, pressing her knuckles against her lips. Kougyoku has recalled these events ten-thousand times by herself, but talking about them now makes her voice shake. “I was... on my own after that.”

Alibaba’s hand closes around her own then, gently pulling it away from her mouth.

“Don’t worry, Kougyoku,” he says softly. The look on his face is strange, almost determined, brows drawn together slightly as he stares into her teary eyes. She sniffles, unsure of what to say. “You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

She doesn’t understand it at all.

“Why… Why are you being so kind to me?” asks Kougyoku, unable to stop herself. She’s only just met this boy, yet he has taken it upon himself to look after her this way. Alibaba has fed her against the wishes of his older brother, and dressed her in a kimono that was once his mother’s, and invited her to sleep in his already crowded bed. And now he’s comforting her, giving her a kind of reassurance she hasn’t felt in a long, long time.

“It seems like the right thing to do, don’t you think?” says Alibaba, giving her a small, wobbly smile. The teeth at the sides of his mouth are still coming in; he can’t be much older than Kougyoku herself, or maybe not even that. He’s only a child, but she feels almost as safe with him as she did with her own mother.

“My mom always told me to —OOF!”

Suddenly, Alibaba’s body lurches forward, his grunt of surprise so loud it makes Kougyoku jump. Kassim sits up a moment later, scowling and propping himself up on one bony arm.

“Would you guys shut up already?” he hisses so as not to wake his sister, then gives Alibaba another knee to the back for good measure. Kougyoku flushes bright red, scrubbing at her eyes with her sleeves, horrified that such a personal conversation was overheard by someone who doesn’t even seem to want her here. “Go flirt outside or something!”

“I’m very s—” she tries to apologize, but Alibaba interrupts her, twisting around to glare at his brother.

“ _Flir—_ Kassim! What the hell? We weren’t!” Petulantly, he smacks the futon with one hand. Even in the dim, flickering light of the fire, Kougyoku can see that his ears are red. “And don’t _kick_ me!” Alibaba adds, landing a blow to Kassim’s shin with his own foot.

Behind Kougyoku, Mariam stirs, pulling the musty quilt over her head and letting out a long whine of annoyance. It takes just a moment for the topic of Alibaba and Kassim’s bickering to shift to who woke her up, and Kougyoku can only watch in shock and embarrassment as they begin to kick each other’s legs again.

When she was living on the streets, she often fantasized about somebody rescuing her. She imagined her mother coming back for her in springtime, and the father she’d never met spending months searching for her. At some point, every passerby had become her potential salvation, from rich foreigners to delivery boys on their bicycles. But what Kougyoku never imagined was that her savior would be a child just like her, an orphan who gave even when there was nothing to give, a rambunctious little boy who’d wrestle his older brother right off the futon just for being rude to her.

No, Alibaba is not the person she thought her benefactor would be, but she is grateful nonetheless.

**End.**


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